How to Become a Virtual Assistant: Everything You Need to Know

I didn’t set out on this path wondering how to become a virtual assistant. It kind of just fell into my lap. And I consider myself pretty darn lucky!

Call it a natural fit — after supporting the senior financial advisor I worked with for six years, VA work seems like the logical path to follow. I knew that the traditional career path wasn’t for me, I wanted to spend more time together as a family, control my own income and not have to answer to a boss.

Back then I was making decisions on the fly — learning the ins and outs of running my own business while working hard to support my young family. Thank goodness for my husband Wade! He took over the responsibility of managing our household and taking care of our then toddlers so mom could build her biz and bring home the bacon 🥓.

These days I’m still juggling a long-term client or two while also helping aspiring VAs to start and grow their own businesses. I spend a lot of time talking to new virtual assistants and speaking about the industry as a whole.

Whenever I host a webinar or am invited to be a guest on a podcast, the thing people resonate with the most is my personal story. They want to know how they can use my experiences to springboard their VA career — launching their own successful service-based business in the process.

In this post, I’m going to cover everything you need to know in order to follow in my footsteps. Outlining each of the individual steps required and pointing you in the direction of our best resources. By the time you get to the end, you should have a solid understanding of the steps you need to take and how you can get started today.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

Although this industry is growing by leaps and bounds there are still plenty of people who don’t really understand what a virtual assistant is or how they can play a vital role in the growth of a business — both online and traditional brick and mortar.

Many people look at VAs as little more than executive assistants. But it’s more complicated than that! It’s true that in some circumstances we might be performing some of the traditional tasks associated with administrative work.

But the list of services that a VA can offer is amazingly diverse. And for this reason I created the following definition:

A virtual assistant is anyone who offers services to other business owners from afar in exchange for an agreed upon fee.

Pretty simple right? As you read through this post, you’ll quickly begin to understand why I decided to create such a broad definition.

What Services Does a Virtual Assistant Provide?

The second most common question we are asked revolves around the types of services that you can offer as a VA. The truth of the matter is that there is no cut and dry list of activities that a virtual assistant does.

We’ve compiled a list of 150+ common VA services that provide you with a great starting point. We also wrote a more detailed post that covers 50+ service options for you to consider. Depending upon your skills and interests, you’re almost guaranteed to find something that will appeal to potential clients. Here are a few examples:

Customer support

Processing online orders and refunds

Website design

WordPress maintenance

Graphic design and layout

Calendar management and travel arrangements

Content creation for blogs and ghostwriting

Editing and proofreading

Transcription

Content research

Keyword research

Email management

Bookkeeping

Data entry

Creating sales pages

Managing product launches

Performing outreach

Lead generation

Editing videos

Social media management

Project management

Community management and moderation

The list goes on and on! For many busy entrepreneurs, the greater the variety of tasks you can handle, the better (more on specialization versus general VA work later).

Services are one thing, but you might be wondering what skills do you need to become a virtual assistant?

Obviously, if you’re planning to work online, a general understanding of all-things-internet is a good place to start. Having some specific skills and experience will make getting started easier and it’ll definitely help with landing the first few clients.

Your experience could include any variety of business activities — both online and offline. At the same time, it’s important to note that a lack of skills should never be a deterrent. A high degree of motivation, good communication skills and a desire to learn are equally, if not more important.

How To Become a Virtual Assistant

Here at Horkey HandBook we’re big fans of keeping things as simple as possible and taking BIG action. If you’re here looking for some kind of secret, there isn’t one.

Just get started!

The first virtual assistant client that I contracted with was a successful entrepreneur. Through back and forth emails, I sensed he was having a little trouble keeping up with his inbox.

We had a friendly banter going and I sensed that I could help him, he’d be fun to work with and that I might benefit in more ways than just earning a paycheck (by learning the inner workings of his business).

Basically, I stepped out and boldly told him he should hire me?. Can you say nerve-wracking?

He said yes and we ended up working together for a little over two years. My inklings were right on the money – I enjoyed working with him, I learned a ton and the regular paycheck was nice! Although we’re not working together currently, even to this day, we’re still in contact.

One thing to keep in mind as you read through these is that your objective is to start promoting and pitching your services as quickly as possible. Acquiring clients and generating revenue should always be at the top of your priority list.

Choose Your Business Structure

There is no such thing as cookie-cutter advice when it comes to selecting your business structure. The answer will vary depending upon a variety of different criteria including:

This is an area where we definitely think it’s worth your time to speak to an accountant or attorney. They can provide you with valuable feedback that is specific to your particular situation. For you, that might mean sole-proprietorship, LLC, a corporation — such as an S-Corp or C-Corp in the US, or a partnership.

In some instances, you may also be able to decide upon a location for your business depending upon your ability to meet specific requirements.

You can see the importance some of these factors or questions might play in your overall financial and life plan which is why you definitely want to get this equation right. Can it be changed? Sure, but it cost time and money so aim to make the right choice the first time around!

Decide Which Virtual Assistant Services You’ll Offer Your Clients

Making a decision on services is a sticking point for many new VAs. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be. There’s no rulebook anywhere that says you have to stick with a specific service offering once you start.

When most people think of the typical VA services the things that come to mind are checking email, returning phone calls and managing their client’s calendar.

One of the main things I did for my first big client was to manage his inbox. I checked and sorted his email, respond on his behalf and draft templated responses for different inquiries.

We also had a weekly call (via Google Hangouts), which was beneficial. The more I was able to learn about his business, the better equipped I became to help him.

Like many entrepreneurs, he was juggling multiple projects and responsibilities from consulting, coaching, writing courses, managing his blog and subscription list and more.

He’s brilliant and an inspiration, but I like to think one of the ways I helped was by reining him in from time-to-time and keeping him accountable to some of the things he needed to do. Especially the things that weren’t always his favorite tasks (like email!).

He’s also voiced that our weekly meetings were his favorite part of working together (because we get so much done).

You’re completely free to grow and adapt your business as you see fit. This means changing, adding or eliminating services based upon client demand, profitability, your available time commitment and your personal interests.

As you’ll discover in launching your VA business, freedom to choose can be a double-edged sword. I can’t tell you how often we hear from people who are in the process of starting their business who are struggling to decide on service offerings.

Here’s what we recommend:

Take a look at the list of services that we mentioned at the beginning of this post.

Get Started! (yep, you’ll notice we say that a lot around these parts?)

Without exceptions, this is the most important step you can take. Once you take the first step, you’ll begin to gather momentum and each successive step will become easier.

You can adapt and change over time in a way that suits your business. For example, you might decide to move from hourly billing to a retainer or maybe even productized services. When you’re ready, you might want to learn more about pricing structure.

Decide on Your Pricing Structure

Everyone wants to know “how much does a virtual assistant make per hour?” What’s the right amount to charge and how much is enough (but not too much)?

The reason the answer varies so much is that the role itself can vary quite greatly – and so can your skill set and experience. We wrote an extensive guide to setting your virtual assistant rates but let’s cover the basics here.

When you’re setting your rates, figure out what would make it worth your time. If you’re planning to charge hourly (at least initially), you’re trading time for money so it’s important to consider several important factors:

You’re not an employee. You’re a subcontractor and in the US, for example, you need to pay both the employee and the employer side of taxes (i.e. self-employment tax).

You also aren’t entitled to any benefits – no sick days, paid vacation, health insurance or retirement contributions are coming your way (with some rare exceptions).

You’ll have an overhead that needs to be covered — things like website hosting, office expenses, some software subscriptions etc.

Because of this expenses, for which you are responsible, you can’t really compare what you make at your day job (or what you could make at a part-time job) with that of your new VA role.

What we recommend is that you need to take whatever wage you think would make sense from a take-home pay perspective and inflate it by at least 25%.

Most business owners will understand that you face these additional costs and if need be, you can break it down for them!

Also keep in mind that from the point of view of business owners, there are definitely perks to hiring a freelance virtual assistant instead of a part or full-time employee. Your client doesn’t have to incur the cost or the time involved with setting up (and many times training) a new employee. Nor do they have to worry about a whole slew of additional expenses and responsibilities that typically come with taking on an employee.

To give you some personal context, I started out charging $34 per hour. For my current clients, I have since moved on from this hourly model and now work on a fixed or retainer rate.

For any new clients I take on, I charge a flat rate (rather than an hourly one), as I would rather have a set of tasks to complete and complete them on my schedule, rather than having to track my time and feel like I’m “on the clock.”

An hourly rate is part of the reason I escaped from corporate America but that might not be the case for you. Take a look at the different business models (hourly, retainer, contract or productized) and pick the one that works best for you.

I like to believe I’m fairly educated and skilled (learning new skills by the day!), which is why I’m comfortable charging adequately for my time. It’s a bit of “you get what you pay for” when it comes to hiring VAs (and for any position really), so keep that in mind as you’re bidding for jobs or hiring your own support staff.

I’d suggest reaching a little higher than the number that pops into your head. It’s easy to undercharge in order to secure the job, but that’s not what’s going to keep either of you happy for the long-term.

Launch Your Website and Create Your Online Presence

We feel strongly about the idea that if you’re going to be working online and providing virtual assistant services from your desired location, it only makes sense that you have an established online presence. We wrote a post that covers some of the most important aspects that you need to think about when planning your website.

In most cases that includes both a website and a social media presence. No matter how you slice it, the combination of those two items makes it much easier to market your business to potential clients.

The days of direct mail, flyers, cold calls and print advertising are behind us. Time and time again, we’ve seen how even a simple website that explains a little bit about you and your services can play a key role in the growth of your business.

As a general rule, we recommend WordPress and a custom theme when setting up your website. And don’t worry, if it seems too overwhelming, we’ve created an in-depth video-based tutorial that will walk you through each step of the process. We also have a post that explains some of the most important elements to consider when creating your virtual assistant website.

The most basic steps include:

Why you should choose WordPress and an appropriate theme

Deciding on general branding elements including colors and fonts.

Creating a simple yet effective logo for your business.

Determine and communicate your value proposition.

Committing to the process of gradual and ongoing improvement.

When it comes to social media, we recommend that you keep things as simple as possible. Instead of trying to juggle multiple social media platforms just follow one simple rule: be where your clients are.

In most (but not all) cases this means Facebook or Linkedin. But going deeper than that, you also want to be in the same groups and communities as your prospective clients. Use social channels to create and build relationships over time. Never jump into a new group and start promoting yourself. Instead, look for opportunities to be genuinely helpful and let relationships grow naturally.

Land New Clients by Pitching and Networking

The final and most important step towards launching a new VA business is, of course, finding your first few clients. What we have typically seen for many VAs who take our course, 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success is that client growth happens exponentially.

Getting from client number 0 to 3 takes a lot more work than getting from 3 to 6. The difference seems to be a result of time, exposure, experience and confidence. Once those four ingredients begin to kick in, the growth process becomes easier.

The process that we encourage both new and experienced VAs to follow when building their business is simple. It involves being both proactive and consistent in your efforts and we have a simple process for finding virtual assistant clients:

Step #1: Know who your ideal clients are. To put it another way, know your target market. That means figuring out the types of businesses and markets that interest you and where you can find them.

Step #2: Find the ideal prospects in your target market. What attributes are you looking for in an ideal client? This could include businesses that are profitable, who need help and even those who have a history of hiring VAs.

Step #3: Begin building a relationship with potential clients. Sometimes we call this courting simply because we want you to understand that building relationships—even business relationships—takes time. We’re big fans of cold pitching, because it’s the best way to start landing clients quickly but the best clients are a result of strong relationships.

Step #4: Pitch new prospects daily. Until your business grows to the point where referrals are consistently rolling in, you need to rely on pitching. To put it another way, if you want work, you’ll have to go looking for it because when you first launch your business, nobody even knows what you do. For new VAs, we encourage daily pitching. Usually, we recommend that you make it one of the first things you do each day—part of our “always be marketing philosophy’.

Step #5: Offer a trial period. Until you’ve established some trust, clients don’t really know what to expect. And to be fair, neither do you. A short trial period is a great way to test the waters and see how well you are able to work together. It also takes away some of the risk and fear that comes with making a long-term commitment early in the relationship.

Step #6: Check in early and consistently. As part of our VA Leads Community, we provide leads to new and experienced VAs. These leads are usually business owners who are looking for help to grow or scale their business. One of the most common complaints we hear about their past experiences is that their VA had poor communication skills. It’s an easy problem to overcome! All you need to do is set yourself a regular schedule where you check in with your client to make sure their needs are being met.

Step #7: Make yourself irreplaceable. If you are interested in keeping a client for the long term, the best thing you can do is provide as much value as possible. Make yourself an invaluable part of their business. Exactly how you do this will vary with each client but let’s look at solopreneurs as an example.

Many solopreneurs are juggling multiple tasks at once. They work long hours and sacrifice personal time, time with their families and even their own health.

Find a way to take specific tasks off their plate, relieve productivity bottlenecks and help them get their weekends back. By doing so you’ll be providing more value than someone who simply exchanges a few hours of time for money.

You’ll become a valued member of their team which results in a win-win scenario.

Some Final Thoughts

As a virtual assistant, your goal is often to help other people grow their businesses. It can be a very rewarding process to help other entrepreneurs grow their business. And you always want to provide as much value as possible.

But at the same time, don’t forget that you are also building your own business. You need to learn to set your own boundaries and run your business in a way that works for you. Because if you don’t take care of yourself and your business, then growth and satisfaction are usually the first two things to suffer.

Your Next Steps

If starting your own VA business is a something you’re passionate about pursuing, you can learn more about our best-selling course: 30 Days or Less to Virtual Assistant Success. It walks you through all the steps we discussed in this post and a whole lot more.

We also offer an exclusive membership community for current and past students of our courses called the VA Leads Community. In addition to ongoing training and access to high-quality job leads, you’ll be part of a close-knit community of successful virtual assistants who are open to sharing their knowledge and experience.

52 thoughts on “How to Become a Virtual Assistant: Everything You Need to Know”

Thanks, Gina! The free course was great and full of lots of substantive information (no fluff!), and the list of 125 tasks really breaks down the variety of work a VA can cover. Definitely keeping this on my radar!

Thank you for the insight into becoming a VA. I’ve been doing so many of the services for many community groups on Facebook for no cost. I enjoy the work to help friends organize and promote their dreams into becoming profitable. Never have I had to care about making an income because I have always been a stay at home mom that offered help to friends, homeschooled my children, managed FB support groups, and created a non profit helping families like myself that have lost a child. Now I have found myself divorced with no income other than child support and no paying work history for the last 20+ years… With many odds against me I am broke, car-less, and desperate to find a way to use what I know I’m good at but have never charged any one. I have no way to purchase your lessons, but I’m hoping I will find my way out of my current circumstances and finally reap the benefits of all I am capable of…
Thank you and again I hope to be able to join this VA world with you. 🙂

Hi Gina; thanks for the wonderful handbook and all the useful info there in.
Just wondering ;does the 30 day or less VA course include the e mail management course!
I am a single mum trying to explore the VA opportunity so that I can financially take care of my family . I don’t know where to start from.
A few weeks ago; I checked and saw that you were offering a 25% discount on the email management course; I think the discount expired around June 14; unfortunately did not have the lump some to pay right away just wondering how often you normally offer these discounts ?

The email management course is separate from the VA Days or Less to VA Success course. Our recommendation is to start with the general course first if you haven’t set up your business yet. If you do have some experience working online, go straight to the specialized course.

We’re offering 10% off all courses on Sunday, June 30th ONLY. You can use the coupon code June10%.

Hi I was recently contacted by someone to become a VA and do payroll for his company. He wants me to setup a paypal account to recieve reimbursements from other coworkers, sometimes my weekly pay, and money to purchase supplies. Im extremely new to this and feel a little uneasy. Do you have any thoughts on what to be cautious of as a VA?

Hey Shannon – this sounds a bit shady to me… would the PayPal account be in his business’ name or yours? If it’d be in yours, I’d run far, far away as it has the feeling of a scam. Best of luck to you!

Hi, Gina! I’ve been a PA for about 2 years now and every summer in college. I am ready to jump into the world of being a VA. I do believe the hardest part is getting started. Thanks for all the great information!

Hi Sarah!
Where can you learn about self-employment tax and how to calculate how much of your $$ is going to taxes? Also, how do you budget for “paid vacation” and making sure you have health insurance. I’m considering side hustling to become a VA, in hopes that I could translate my full time job to a part time VA position. However, I want to end up with around the same pay or more. It’s so complicated with all of the extra things to consider!

We touch on taxes/vacations/benefits in the course, but ultimately it’s dependent on where you live – i.e. even in the US each state has different (or no) tax rates. My best advice is to start setting aside 20-30% of your net income into a separate savings account for taxes and of course to consult with an accountant as your business grows.

As far as vacations go, it’s best to prepare for them as unpaid, but dependent on the client you might get paid or be able to front and back load your work (i.e. work more before and after it).

Health insurance is a different beast and again is dependent on where you live – we’ve had private health insurance for four years now (and are currently on a Christian health share plan). If in the US you can look into your state’s exchange or get in touch with a health insurance agent. Hope that helps some!

I really appreciate your post. I’ve been a VA for over five years. The company I work for is in New York and I handle all their books and work closely with the accountant. It’s a win-win because the company can afford to pay me a lower rate than someone in New York City. That being said, I am paid well and I’m able to do this part time.

That’s great Kate – thanks for sharing! I’ve never even thought of that part, but I bet NYC, San Francisco and other areas that have a higher cost of living would really benefit. Thanks for the enlightenment.:-)

I have done bookkeeping from my home for 18 years plus now. I am looking into becoming a VA. I am in TN. How did you go about landing a bookkeeping client? I have also worked in a CPA office and know the inner-workings of that side as well. I have used Quickbooks for 19 years and am very efficient with it. I’m thinking that getting their information would be the tricky part. I would appreciate any feedback. Thanks!

Hi Gina!
I started 4 months ago, I didn’t know a single thing about working virtually. However, I am very happy to learn and serve. I hope to charge more soon because I think that I have an advantage over other people: I am a polyglot. I talk Spanish, French and English but I don’t know if that could be a niche. I am going to read your guide and hope to discover the answer. Any kind of advice would be awesome. Thanks.

does your course show specifics on ‘how-to’ do some of the common tasks you would be expected to do as a VA? I like visuals and step by step details so I am sure I will be knowledgeable doing what I might be asked to do. even things like planning someone else’s calendar – what program do you have to have on your own computer and then does the customer send all the needed appointment details to you and you just plug it in? it can’t be that simple, or they would do it themselves, plus they would need current information so not to miss their appointments. do you see what I am asking here? I would like to do things like that, just not sure I would be able to. (called Fear and Self-Doubt probably)
I would hate to say I could do something and then find out I really don’t know how or have the resources to do it and look like a failure. Especially when you are new or haven’t done it on the job, just in college courses.
thanks
seriously considering your program, at least I guess it can’t hurt, right?

The course goes in depth on content management, social media management and inbox (email) management. We’re also in the midst of building a new training platform to make even more skill specific training available by the end of this year.

It seems like the most successful VAs already have administrative, technical or creative work experience. What if a person has the skills, but not the work experience? Would it be hard for them to land clients as a VA?

Hi Ebony. If you’ve already learned about what it takes to become a VA, I think you can jump straight into the Pinterest VA course.

But if you still need to learn the basics of setting up an online business, and offering more than one service, you can start with the VA course. I’d start with that one if you haven’t worked online/virtually before.

Hi Gina,
I’m very interested in becoming a VA. From many of the posts, I see that a oft requested service is bookkeeping. This is not a skill that I have, nor is it one that I can see myself acquiring. Is it possible for me to grow a VA business without offering bookkeeping services?
Esther

Seriously considering investing in the course. I’m looking more for concrete skills training rather than business management. I love your list but don’t have all the skills. Does your course show things like quickbooks, social media marketing, and other task how-tos? If not, where could I find those online for free vs paid to be confident and skilled at my services.

Hey Moriya! In the current version of the course (it’s continuously being updated!) we teach you the business of starting a VA biz from scratch – choosing your top 2-3 services, defining your target market, deciding how much to charge, prospecting for clients, onboarding them and working effectively and efficiently. Additionally, we dive deep into three services you can offer (email, social media and content management), plus cover another half dozen or so, including interviews with experts in those fields.

Hey Gina, thank you for this in-depth article. I am thinking of starting out as a VA but I am afraid I don’t have many skills. The skills I have are customer service; phone support. Data entry and data analysis.
I am looking into learning social media management with time. Do you think I can find work with those set of skills or I need to learn more before I put myself out there?
Thank you very much.

It sounds like you already have a solid background, so why not try to get clients that need these services – customer service, data entry and data analysis? If you want to pivot into other services, you can always do that once you’ve tested the market.

Thank you for this insightful article, im intersted in becoming a virtuel assistant but i dont know if it will work for me as im from morocco and i live in it considering that we dont have such kind of online job in mmy country !

If your English skills are good (and I think they are), you could try working with clients from other countries. We have VAs in our community who are not based in the United States, yet they still work with U.S. clients.

Hi Gina!
I’ve been looking for jobs to work from home because I am a mother of a 1 year old and I have been struggling to find a babysitter so, he’s been from different babysitter since he’s been born and this time I have no other option of a babysitter and I will be force to quit my job and no income coming in. I’m sorry I am not the type to give a sob story, I just do not know what to do anymore. I was wondering if I could get help with finding jobs through your website after I take the courses you provide. Thank you so much….
Hope you have a wonderful day.

I don’t have an assisting background but I do have an extensive background in customer service and I have always thought that with my skill set I could make a great assistant. I have also been thinking about starting a business but wasn’t sure what that business could be. Being a VA sounds like something that I would definitely be interested in but I have no experience in assisting or business ownership. Do I need to go out and try and get some assisting experience or is becoming a VA something you can learn to do on it’s own? Besides your course is there any other certifications I could or should look into? This post is really informative! Thank you!

We use “virtual assistant” as an umbrella term for working online (remotely) for clients. So there’s no such thing as “assisting” as a profession. Taking into consideration your extensive background in customer service, you could specialize in that, in different capacities. You can leverage your skills in any online business that has face-to-face customer interaction.

Hi! I always wanted to do VA , but felt I didn’t have email management skills or Real Estate. So I stopped looking. Lately, I been looking more into it and I want to learn how to do email management and Real Estate. I do have data entry and customer service skills. If I want to learn to do email management and Real Estate, will your course help me learn how to do those things? I never had experience or been a VA

I’ve been in business support roles for 20 years, with various companies, I feel bored, tired and constantly unfulfilled, so have been considering a career change.
A friend mentioned being a VA and that running my own business might be what I need, my worry is that I’d still feel the same as I do now or does working for yourself re-energise and provide more fulfillment?

I think it’s ultimately up to you to know what you find fulfilling and energizing. But I would recommend to have a look at this list we’ve put together. Maybe one of these 50 services you can offer as a VA will speak to your heart.

Hey Gina, this is me Aleena from India and I make videos on YouTube. I’m currently in process of making a video on VA as a career option. I’d be glad to mention your website and guide to my viewers. Thanks 🧡
We grow together!